Juggling difference and sameness: Rethinking strategies for diversity in organizations

SummaryIn this era of omnipresent diversity, we face paradoxical outcomes from practices, policies and the management of diversity in organizations. On the one hand, diversity is supposed to be adopted in terms of social justice and inclusiveness: embracing all talent and reaching out to diverse groups that traditionally were not part of the core of organizations. On the other hand, broad societal discourses of otherness are emerging, which severely limit chances for the inclusion of ‘others’. We propose to re-theorize and contextualize these phenomena; we aim to discuss alternative approaches of dealing with diversity by connecting strategic essentialism, contiguity, and space/time relations to exemplify the often hidden workings of the power dimensions involved.

► Diversity (management) is contrasted with current societal discourses of ‘othering’.
► Analyzing structural dominance is not enough to expose culture as essentialist and unchangeable.
► A sustainable, critical tradition requires conditions for change in discursive spaces.
► Alternative approaches for diversity are developed via strategic essentialism.